“I remember (Nike CEO) Phil Knight saying at the time that hockey was North America’s fourth-most culturally-significant sport,” said John Collins, a former senior executive in Nike’s hockey division. “He wanted in.”

Nike would wind up paying a frothy $395 million (U.S.) for Canstar, a 50 per cent premium above the level its shares were trading in prior months.

Industry executives now say even though a number of suitors will probably emerge for NikeBauer, it’s doubtful the division will sell for more than $150 million – less than half what Nike originally paid for it.

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Such are things with hockey sweaters. Football and basketball jerseys may dominate today’s marketplace, while a top-selling hockey jersey (Peter Forsberg) sees sales of around 4,000. To put that in perspective, some 600,000 LeBron jerseys were sold just six months after the then high schooler was drafted.

Yes, the NHL doesn’t have the tentacles or market share of the other big American sports, so its numbers will never reach a parallel scope. But there’s something more to hockey garb. Just like the little boy in Roch Carrier’s The Hockey Sweater, people don’t just pull the old switcheroo on their hockey threads. There’s something that comes with wearing a time-tested Red Wings or Bruins jersey.

It may be more than 100 degrees outside, but inside this factory about 25 minutes south of the U.S. border, more than 500 workers are busy making equipment for a sport played on a large sheet of ice.

And they’re pretty busy, churning out about 7,000 hockey sticks a week. While Mexico is hardly the heart of hockey country, this is precisely where a large chunk of the NHL’s sticks are designed, tested and mass produced.

For the most part, hockey is about as foreign as a sport can get in Mexico, but the Easton Hockey plant has its own roller hockey team—and they’re well equipped, of course.

All of which shows that changing an entire league’s uniforms en masse, as the NHL and Reebok have done this season, is a tricky proposition. There’s no precedent for it among the major team sports—the closest parallel is the sea change in baseball triggered in 1970 by the Pirates, who switched from button-up vests, belted pants, and flannel fabric to a pullovers, elastic waistbands, and double-knit polyester. Within three years, all 24 MLB teams had gone to polyester, 14 had switched from button fronts to pullovers, and 16 had switched from belts to waistbands.

But that gradual transition happened incrementally, whereas the NHL changes—which involve graphics and aesthetics as much as new fabrics and tailoring considerations—are being thrust upon us all at once. With the regular season slated to begin this weekend, every single team has new uniforms, although some of the changes are more modest than others.

Gretzky is plugging a new, battery-warmed skate blade that melts ice to give its wearer — so the endorsements contend — more speed with less work and overall, a better hockey experience.

Hey, is it too late for the Leafs to place an order?

The Thermablade inventor, Calgarian Tory Weber, says the steamy steel is not a novelty item, like Cooperalls, nasal strips or pyramid power. The 43-year-old, who spent more than $5 million over five years to bring his idea to market, believes the “fairly simple physics” behind the electronic blade will revolutionize hockey for competitive players.

Having now sampled the new, high-tech togs unveiled by all 30 NHL teams this year for a handful of pre-season games, Flames players are understanding why the word sweat is in sweater.

“My undershirt is just soaked,” said forward Owen Nolan. “I find I’m changing them in between periods and a lot more frequently than before. I feel like I’m working out in a sauna.”...

“With the other ones, you had holes and got more of a breeze in there—maybe that’s why you got that drying out effect,” said blueliner Cory Sarich. “These seem to heat you up more because there’s not that two-way air flow.

“Besides, the jerseys don’t feel much different than the old ones. I don’t know if they’ve accomplished what they want. From talking to guys, I don’t feel they’re making a difference on the ice.”